Why does VIM paste 1 line below where expected?

Question

A simple recipe to demonstrate the behavior of pasting in Vim/Vi...

1. Run vim
2. Enter insert mode
3. Add 3 different lines of garbage to your file
4. Exit insert mode (press escape)
5. Move the caret to the second line
6. Enter the command dd (delete line)
7. Enter the command p (paste)

Notice the pasted line is inserted below where you might expect it to be placed.

Why is Vim/Vi programmed with this behavior, and is there any way to change it? (ie: Have the line pasted one line above the default position.)

Answer 1

Use P. It will paste above the cursor instead of below.

Answer 2

p will paste below the current line, P will paste above the line. If you want you can swap the behaviors of P and p add the following to your vimrc.

nnoremap p P
nnoremap P p